The historiography of religion is how historians have studied

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

in terms of themes, sources and conflicting ideas. Historians typically focus on one particular topic in the overall

history of religions The history of religion refers to the written record of human religious feelings, thoughts, and ideas. This period of religious history begins with the invention of writing about 5,200 years ago (3200 BC). The prehistory of religion involves th ...

in terms of geographical area or of theological tradition. Historians for centuries focused on the theological developments of their own religious heritage. Social scientists in the 19th century took a strong interest in "primitive" and

comparative religion Comparative religion is the branch of the study of religions with the systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices, themes and impacts (including migration) of the world's religions. In general the comparative study of religion yie ...

. In the 20th century, the field focused mostly on

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and church organization and development. Since the 1970s the social history approach to religious behavior and belief has become important.

Reformation

Jacob argues that there has been a dramatic shift in the historiography of the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. Until the 1960s, historians focused their attention largely on 16th-century theologians such as

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...

, John Calvin, and

Huldrych Zwingli Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli (1 January 1484 – 11 October 1531) was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system. He attended the Univ ...

. Their ideas were studied in depth. However, the rise of the

new social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

in the 1960s look at history from the bottom up, not from the top down. Historians began to concentrate on the values, beliefs and behavior of the people at large. She finds, "in contemporary scholarship, the Reformation is now seen as a vast cultural upheaval, a social and popular movement, textured and rich because of its diversity".

1700-1900

New approaches to the history of Christianity were introduced by

Leopold von Ranke Leopold von Ranke (; 21 December 1795 – 23 May 1886) was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of ...

(1795-1886) and

Philip Schaff Philip Schaff (January 1, 1819 – October 20, 1893) was a Swiss-born, German-educated Protestant theologian and ecclesiastical historian, who spent most of his adult life living and teaching in the United States. Biography Schaff was born ...

(1819–92). They emphasized the need for more neutrality, with the goal of understanding history as it actually happened, rather than promoting or defending ones theological heritage. Von Ranke in 1843 finished his six‐volume ''German History in the Epoch of the Reformation'' then turned to a multivolume ''History of the Popes during the Last Four Centuries''. Schaff, deeply schooled in the German tradition, relocated to the United States in 1844. His ''History of the Christian Church'' (7 vols., 1858–1890), set new standards for the American study of ecclesiastical history. He demonstrated how to integrate liturgical developments. He also introduced European scholars to American religion, arguing that American sectarianism, with all its faults, was preferable to European church-statism.

Pietism and benevolence

Pietism Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christian life, including a social concern for the needy an ...

was originated in

18th-century Germany From the 1680s to 1789, Germany comprised many small territories which were parts of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Prussia finally emerged as dominant. Meanwhile, the states developed a classical culture that found its greatest expr ...

and was emulated in neighboring countries. It had a major impact in England and North America, where it affected the

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

movement and a series of revival outbursts known as the Great Awakening in the United States. It involved an intense internal focus on sin and salvation through Christ, and in the form of evangelicalism, remains a powerful force in Protestantism well into the 21st century. Pietism emphasize the value of revivals, leading to the born-again experience, and inspired its followers to set high moralistic standards for public behavior, as in such areas as opposition to alcohol and slavery. Historians have explored the impact of the new religious sentiments of the 18th and 19th century on the organizational behavior of laymen. Protestants sponsored voluntary charitable and religious societies, including overseas missions throughout the empire, setting up Sunday schools, founding charity schools, distributing Bibles and devotional literature, creating and emphasizing hymns and communal singing, and setting up revivals. A major result was the establishment of an international battle against slavery as an affront to Protestant morality.

Comparative studies

Social scientists in the 19th century took a strong interest in comparative and "primitive" religion through the work of

Max Müller Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic disciplines of Indian ...

Edward Burnett Tylor Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (2 October 18322 January 1917) was an English anthropologist, and professor of anthropology. Tylor's ideas typify 19th-century cultural evolutionism. In his works ''Primitive Culture'' (1871) and ''Anthropology'' (1 ...

William Robertson Smith William Robertson Smith (8 November 184631 March 1894) was a Scottish orientalist, Old Testament scholar, professor of divinity, and minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He was an editor of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' and contributo ...

, James George Frazer,

Émile Durkheim David Émile Durkheim ( or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, al ...

, Max Weber, and Rudolf Otto.

20th century

Hartmut Lehmann Hartmut Lehmann (born April 29, 1936) is a German historian of modern history who specializes in religious and social history. He is known for his research on Pietism, secularization, religion and nationalism, transatlantic studies and Martin Lut ...

argues that four basic themes dominated the history of Christianity during the 20th century: the rise of "political religions", drastic technological changes, progressive secularization, and the impressive growth of Christian communities in the Southern Hemisphere.

Secularization

Secularization, the steady decline in religious activity in historically Protestant countries of Europe, has been an important field of study.

Missions and expansion

Much recent research is focused on the expansion of Christianity throughout the developing world. Protestant and Catholic religions, starting their strongholds in European colonial powers, propagated throughout the third world in the 20th century – especially in Africa. For example,

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

has far more

Anglicans Anglicanism is a Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia ...

than does Great Britain. Missionaries, especially from the United States, promoted

Mormonism Mormonism is the religious tradition and theology of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 1830s. As a label, Mormonism has been applied to various aspects of ...

, Jehovah's Witnesses,

Seventh-day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and i ...

, and holiness and

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

denominations to highly receptive audiences.

Islam

The

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

of Islam grew slowly in the 20th century, and, since the 1980s, has become a major project for scholars.

Notes

* Kippenberg, Hans
''Discovering Religious History in the Modern Age''
(2001) * McLeod, Hugh. "Religion and the City," ''Urban History Yearbook'' (1978) p7-22. reviews studies of religion in the cities of Europe and America 1820s-1970s * Ranger, T. O. and Isaria Kimambo. ''The Historical Study of African Religion'' (University of California Press, 1972) * Sanneh, Lamin, and Michael McClymond, eds.
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to World Christianity
' (2016).

Europe

* Bebbington, David W. ''Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s'' (Routledge, 2003) * Brown, Callum G. ''The Social History of Religion in Scotland Since 1730'' (Methuen, 1987) * Davie, Grace. ''Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing Without Belonging'' (Blackwell, 1994) * Gajano, Sofia Boesch.
"Italian Religious Historiography in the 1990s"
''Journal of Modern Italian Studies'' (1998) 3#3 pp 293–306 * Hsia, Po-Chia, ed. '' A Companion to the Reformation World'' (2006) * Levitin, Dmitri.
"From Sacred History to the History of Religion: Paganism, Judaism, and Christianity in European Historiography from Reformation to 'Enlightenment'"
''Historical Journal'' 55#4 (2012): 1117–1160 * MacCulloch, Diarmaid; Laven, Mary; Duffy, Eamon.
"Recent Trends in the Study of Christianity in Sixteenth-Century Europe"
''Renaissance Quarterly'' (2006) 58#3 pp 697–731 * Marshall, Peter
"(Re)defining the English Reformation"
''Journal of British Studies'' (2009) 48#3 pp. 564–586 * Menchi, Silvana Seidel.
"The Age of Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Italian Historiography, 1939-2009"
''Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte'' (2009) Vol. 100, pp 193–217. * Thomas, Keith.
Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-century England
' (1991) * Weber, Eugen
"Religion and Superstition in Nineteenth-Century France"
''Historical Journal'' (1988) 31#2 pp. 399–423

America

* * Chappel, James
"Beyond Tocqueville: A Plea to Stop 'Taking Religion Seriously'"
''Modern Intellectual History'' (2013) 10#9 pp 697–708. * Dolan, Jay P., and James P. Wind, eds. ''New Dimensions in American Religious History: Essays in Honor of Martin E. Marty'' (Eerdmans, 1993) * Fox, Richard Wightman. "Experience and Explanation in Twentieth-Century American Religious History", ''New Directions in American Religious History'' ed. by Harry Stout and D. G. Hart (1997) pp: 394-413. * Frey, Sylvia R. "The Visible Church: Historiography of African American Religion since Raboteau," ''Slavery & Abolition'' (2008) 29#1 pp 83–110. * McGreevy, John T.

''Reviews in American History'' 26.1 (1998): 239-254 * Schultz, Kevin M.; Harvey, Paul. "Everywhere and Nowhere: Recent Trends in American Religious History and Historiography", ''Journal of the American Academy of Religion'', March 2010, Vol. 78#1 pp 129–162 * Smith, Timothy L.
"Religion and Ethnicity in America"
''American Historical Review'' (1978): 1155-1185 * Stout, Harry S., and D. G. Hart, eds.
New Directions in American Religious History
' (1997) * Sweet, Leonard I., ed.

' (1993), pp 355–479 * Wilson, John F. ''Religion and the American Nation: Historiography and History'' (2003) 119pp {{Authority control History of religion